fin de siècle

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French fin-de-siècle (literally end of the century).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌfæ̃ də ˈsjɛ.klə/, /ˌfæn də ˈsjɛ.klə/
  • (file)
  • (file)

Adjective

fin de siècle (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to the close of the 19th century, usually suggesting a literary and artistic climate of modernism, world-weariness, and self-indulgence.
    • 1990, Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter, Fin de Siècle and Its Legacy, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 3:
      The fin-de-siècle phenomenon has, of course, received considerable attention from historians in the recent past—a testament to its appeal. [] They also tend to concentrate on individual as well as social alienation as particularly characteristic of the fin-de-siècle feeling.
  2. (by extension) Pertaining to the close of the 20th (or any other) century.
    • 1991, Douglas Coupland, “Eat Your Parents”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC:
      And, Dag, have you ever noticed that your bungalow looks more like it belongs to a pair of Eisenhower era Allentown, Pennsylvania newlyweds than it does to a fin de siècle existentialist poseur?

Noun

fin de siècle (plural fins de siècle)

  1. The end of an era.
    • 2020 June 24, Tom McTague, “The Decline of the American World”, in The Atlantic:
      From these conversations, most of which took place on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, a picture emerged in which America's closest allies are looking on with a kind of stunned incomprehension, unsure of what will happen, what it means, and what they should do, largely bound together with angst and a shared sense, as one influential adviser told me, that America and the West are approaching something of a fin de siècle.

Further reading

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French fin-de-siècle.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfɛ̃ dɛ ˈsjɛkl/
  • (file)

Noun

fin de siècle m inan

  1. (art, historical, literature) fin de siècle (literary and artistic climate of modernism, world-weariness, and self-indulgence)

Declension

Derived terms

adjective
  • findesieclowy
nouns
  • findesieclista
  • findesieclistka

Further reading

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